How much is 25 million gallons of water? Enough to fill 200 million 16-oz bottles. Enough bottles to keep you busy for the next 60 years, if you decide to count them down in “99 bottles of beer on the wall” fashion. Twenty-five million gallons is also the combined annual water savings of the more than 1,000 certified California Green Builder homes completed since 2005.
California Green Builder (CGB) is a voluntary program that provides a workable framework for production builders to build resource-efficient homes. Since 2005, over 3,000 homes have been enrolled in the program, and over 1,000 of those homes have been built. All CGB homes are built to be 15% more energy efficient than homes that just meet the standards set by Title 24—California’s energy code, one of the strictest in the nation. And all CGB homes are built to save a minimum of 20,000 gallons of water per year. In addition, CGB homes must use engineered-wood products from sustainable sources and must have an engineered HVAC design, with a MERV 6 filter for improved indoor air quality. And CGB builders must divert a minimum of 50% of construction waste from landfills. The energy and water savings ...